A randomised trial of the effect of the glycine reuptake inhibitor Org 25935 on cognitive performance in healthy male volunteers.

Objective: Cognitive impairment is integral to many neurological illnesses. Specific enhancement of glutamatergic transmission may improve memory and learning. Org 25935 increases the synaptic availability of glycine, an obligate co-agonist with glutamate at N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors.

Changes in cardiovascular function after venlafaxine but not pregabalin in healthy volunteers: a double-blind, placebo-controlled study of orthostatic challenge, blood pressure and heart rate.

It is generally thought that venlafaxine raises blood pressure at higher doses; however, some studies have found no effect or a decrease in blood pressure. The aim of this study was to evaluate the cardiovascular (CV) effects of 3 weeks of dosing with venlafaxine, pregabalin and placebo on young healthy adults. Fifty-four participants, of mean age 23.

The effect of a clinically effective and non-effective dose of lorazepam on 7.5% CO₂-induced anxiety.

Symptoms of anxiety induced by 7.5% CO₂ inhalation can be attenuated by acute administration of GABA(A) receptor anxiolytics such as lorazepam and alprazolam. This study investigated if these effects are dose-related, by comparing a 0.

Evaluation of the effects of venlafaxine and pregabalin on the carbon dioxide inhalation models of Generalised Anxiety Disorder and panic.

Previous studies have shown that subjective and objective symptoms of anxiety induced by 7.5% CO(2) inhalation can be attenuated by anxiolytics such as lorazepam and, to a lesser extent, paroxetine. Venlafaxine and pregabalin, two other licensed treatments for Generalised Anxiety Disorder, were used to further investigate the 7.

The administration of psilocybin to healthy, hallucinogen-experienced volunteers in a mock-functional magnetic resonance imaging environment: a preliminary investigation of tolerability.

This study sought to assess the tolerability of intravenously administered psilocybin in healthy, hallucinogen-experienced volunteers in a mock-magnetic resonance imaging environment as a preliminary stage to a controlled investigation using functional magnetic resonance imaging to explore the effects of psilocybin on cerebral blood flow and activity. The present pilot study demonstrated that up to 2 mg of psilocybin delivered as a slow intravenous injection produces short-lived but typical drug effects that are psychologically and physiologically well tolerated. With appropriate care, this study supports the viability of functional magnetic resonance imaging work with psilocybin.

Effects of 7.5% CO2 challenge in generalized anxiety disorder.

We have previously developed a putative model of generalized anxiety disorder in healthy volunteers using a 20-minute 7.5% carbon dioxide (CO(2)) inhalation challenge. The aim of this study was to validate the 7.

Rapid tryptophan depletion following cognitive behavioural therapy for panic disorder.

Objective: The aim of this study was to examine the effect of rapid tryptophan depletion (RTD) combined with a panicogenic challenge in patients with panic disorder who had responded to treatment with cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT). We hypothesised that RTD (compared with the control drink) would result in an increase in anxiety symptoms when provoked by a panicogenic challenge with the benzodiazepine antagonist, flumazenil.

Methods: Nine patients with panic disorder who had responded to CBT received a tryptophan-free amino acid drink on one occasion and a control drink on the other in a double-blind crossover design.

Assessment of GABAA benzodiazepine receptor (GBzR) sensitivity in patients with alcohol dependence.

Aim: The aim of this study was to measure GABAA benzodiazepine receptor (GBzR) sensitivity in alcohol-dependent patients and compare with matched non-dependent drinkers.

Methods: Nine abstinent alcohol-dependent male patients, age matched with nine male non-dependent social drinkers, received an intravenous infusion of midazolam. Objective (saccadic eye movement slowing) and subjective (visual analogue scales) measurements were recorded at 15-min intervals for 2 h.

Sexual health promotion: the barriers school nurses face.

This paper reports on the findings of a study which aimed to determine the contribution of school nurses to promoting sexual health within schools and whether occupational and professional boundaries impinged on the school nurses' ability to undertake this aspect of their role. The research was carried out across three Primary Care Trusts (PCTs). Data were collected using semi-structured interviews, a total of 30 school nurses (n=30) from across the three PCTs were included in the study.

The use of sleep measures to compare a new 5HT1A agonist with buspirone in humans.

The partial agonist buspirone has a REM (rapid eye movement) suppressing effect on human sleep probably via a 5HT(1A) receptor in the pontine area. Eptapirone is a new 5HT(1A) agonist with a greater intrinsic effect than buspirone. The objective of this study was to examine the effects of eptapirone on sleep architecture, particularly REM sleep, in normal volunteers and compare it with buspirone and placebo.

Tryptophan depletion reverses the therapeutic effect of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors in social anxiety disorder.

Background: Tryptophan depletion studies have suggested that central serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine, 5-HT) function mediates the therapeutic effect of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) in depression and panic disorder. The present study tested the hypothesis that temporary reduction in central 5-HT transmission, through acute tryptophan depletion, could reverse the therapeutic effect of the SSRIs in social anxiety disorder (SAD) patients.

Methods: Fourteen patients with SAD who showed sustained clinical improvement with SSRI treatment underwent tryptophan depletion in a double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover design, over 2 days 1 week apart.

Correlation of subjective and objective sleep measurements at different stages of the treatment of depression.

Studies of the correlation of subjective and objective sleep measures in depressed patients have produced mixed results so far. Further, they were carried out in sleep laboratories and tended to obtain one-off assessments, thus not taking into account the effect of treatment. We investigated forty (40) patients over the course of 8-week treatment of depression with either paroxetine or nefazodone.

Effects on sleep architecture of pindolol, paroxetine and their combination in healthy volunteers.

Rationale: The combination of pindolol with a serotonergic antidepressant has been used to speed up the antidepressant response and to augment in cases of resistant depression. Animal studies have suggested that this increased response occurs because of 5HT(1A) antagonist properties of pindolol, which in combination with a serotonergic antidepressant produces a synergistic increase in 5HT in the synapse.

Objectives: To test whether the combination of pindolol with a serotonergic antidepressant produces a synergistic increase in synaptic 5HT by examining the effects on measures of sleep, psychomotor performance and ratings of anxiety.

GABAAbenzodiazepine receptor (GBzR) sensitivity: test-retest reliability in normal volunteers.

Rationale: Alcohol, benzodiazepines and barbiturates act through the GABA(A) benzodiazepine receptor (GBzR). Patients with some forms of anxiety disorder have reduced GBzR sensivity, although it is not clear whether this is a state or a trait phenomenon. We have developed a paradigm for assessing GBzR sensitivity using slowing of saccadic eye movements in response to intravenous midazolam.

Inhalation of 35% CO(2) results in activation of the HPA axis in healthy volunteers.

Background: The hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis is a major stress responsive system in humans. Although there are numerous ways of testing responsiveness of the HPA in experimental animals, this is much more difficult in man. Hypercapnea is a very stressful stimulus for humans and has been used as an anxiogenic probe in psychiatric patients.

Does 5-HT restrain panic? A tryptophan depletion study in panic disorder patients recovered on paroxetine.

The neurobiological basis of panic disorder has not been clearly established, although a role for serotonin (5-HT) has been postulated. It is clear that drugs which increase 5-HT neurotransmission are effective in treating the condition but how they do so remains a point of debate. The aim of this study was to determine if lowering brain serotonin activity using the technique of tryptophan depletion provoked a short-term relapse of panic symptoms in patients with panic disorder who had responded to drug treatment.